Edward Albee's Reading Nook

‘‘I always felt when I was visiting that I was getting to hang out with Edward and be in this great museum at the same time,’’ says Sam Rudy, Albee’s longtime friend and publicist. The playwright was a passionate collector of art, and filled his Manhattan loft with countless pieces — like Walt Kuhn’s ‘‘Helen’’ (1929), the striking portrait seen here. This nook was where Albee read and took phone calls; Rudy also recalls arriving for appointments and finding the ‘‘notoriously punctual’’ writer on his worn leather chair, jacket draped over one knee, ‘‘in full waiting mode.’’ ‘‘There was always tremendous still and quiet and calm in the loft,’’ he says, “except when there was a party. It was not unlike a museum in that regard.’’

From “Quiet Places” in the New York Times; photo by Mitch Epstein (@mitch_epstein)

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